Sunrise on El Teide

After our visit to Teide, Audrey and I determined to see the sunrise there. We duly set the alarm clock for six though this is very foreign to our policy when we aren't on passage. I enjoyed the drive up in the dark though dawn was breaking as we got ever higher creating a sense of time pressure. We parked at the base of the cable car and watched the sky in the east getting ever lighter until the sun popped up over the ridge. Although it was bitterly cold, the effort was definitely worth it. We also felt very smug as we drove back down and saw all the tourist coaches heading up after the really dramatic event we had witnessed!

Just before it came over the mountain:

First sight of the sun:

Coming up:

The moon was still there and just past the full:

Some of the rock formations look fantastic in the early morning light:

After that, we had a more mundane task of stocking up. There is a big supermarket half way between here and the airport so we took advantage of the car to load up with tins for the voyage south. Such food will be much more expensive and difficult to obtain once we leave the Canaries so we will be loading poor old Sarah Giddings to the limit with food. We are told that the produce market at San Sebastian de La Gomera is the best place for fresh food immediately before departure.

Perhaps one of the more surreal experiences we have had recently was finding an Iceland near the Mercadonna. Audrey has been wanting to get tinned meat such as corned beef but has not had much luck recently - in particular, Mercadonna did not have any. We therefore pounced on the Iceland. It was identical to what you would find in the UK, apart from the price though which was extortionate. We didn't fancy paying €4 for a can of corned beef but did spend €16 on some Encona chilli sauce and Reggae Reggae BBQ sauce. That should last us to the Caribbean where we can get the real thing and jerk chicken cooked on the beach! Unsurprisingly, we were able to resist buying the Hob Nobs, marmalade and marmite.